Juliet's breast disfigured 'from too much touching'

Published: 11 Oct 2013 10:27 GMT+02:00

It’s meant to bring luck in love, but tourists flocking to the fair city of Verona to touch the right breast of a statue of Juliet, the protagonist of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, have instead disfigured the sculpture.

There are now so many “holes” in the bronze statue, which stands in the courtyard of the Casa di Giulietta (Juliet’s house), due to “too much rubbing”, particularly in the breast area, that it is now at risk, the Verona edition of Corriere reported.

The holes have been getting worse over time because of the friction, to the point that the statue could become unstable and be a danger to visitors, Giuseppe Franco Viviani, who works at the Agriculture, Science and Literature Academy of the norhern Italian city, is reported by Corriere as saying.

He now suggests part of the money paid by tourists to visit the house should be used to maintain the statue.

Casa di Giulietta, with the famous balcony said to have inspired Shakespeare’s romantic-tragedy, is among Italy’s most-visited sites.

British supermodel Naomi Campbell was on Friday convicted by a Sicilian court of assaulting a photographer on the island of Lipari, and given a six month suspended prison term, Live Sicilia reported.
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